Local veteran Overstreet presents 48-star American Flag to VFW Post 5745

Let me tell you a story about a young soldier that left his family and went off to war. Luther E. “Buck” Bagley was one of about 2,500 reinforcements to the expendable, top-secret 5307th Composite Unit Provisional, better known as Merrill’s Marauders, flown into Myitkyina, Burma to fight against the superior Japanese 18th Division.

“Buck” was 20 years old – and (wife) Eleanor 17 – when he was drafted in 1942 from his hometown of Fitzgerald. He had been working in a cotton mill after quitting high school to support his parents.

Eleanor and baby “Woody” were able to visit “Buck” only once after he joined the Army and before he shipped out of Fort Meade, MD port of embarkation “to parts unknown.”

Woody was 11 months old, and his mother was 19 when a relative went to Southeastern Shipbuilding Corp., in Savannah where she was working as a Rosie the Riveter, to tell her “Buck” had been killed in action in Burma July 25, 1944, at age 22.

“Buck” was a Private First Class, K Company, assigned to the 5307th Composite Unit Provisional, nicknamed Merrill’s Marauders, when he arrived in the China Burma India Theater in late May 1944.

After northern Burma’s strategic Myitkyina airfield had been seized on May 17, 1944, with only about 200 combat capable Merrill’s Marauders remaining, “Buck was among the first 5307th CUP reinforcements flown in to help hold the airfield and capture the town of Myitkyina.

When “Buck” was killed in action on July 25, 1944, it was only one week from when the town of Myitkyina finally fell, August 3, 1944. One week later, the 5307th CUP dissolved on August 10, 1944.

The tiny number of remaining Marauders plus the 5307th CUP replacements became the 475th Infantry. Today’s 75th Ranger Regiment, headquartered at Fort Moore, GA (previously Fort Benning) traces its lineage to Merrill’s Marauders. The 75th Ranger Regiment crest is the Marauder patch.

In 2020, a Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to the Merrill’s Marauder unit, honoring all the men who had served in the 5307th CUP up until it was dissolved on August 10, 1944, “in recognition of their bravery and outstanding service in the jungles of Burma during WW II.”

Nathan “Woody” Bagley, 80, from Rincon, received a life-altering call from William E. Cox, Past Conflict Repatriation Branch, FT Knox, KY telling him that the remains of his father, Luther E. “Buck” Bagley, had been identified after 80 years after his combat death.

“Woody” was stunned after answering Cox’s 9 a.m. call on Tuesday, May 14, 2024, and learning that DNA he’d sent in years ago had enabled his father’s remains to be identified.

“Woody” and Pat immediately drove to Pembroke to gather with other family members and tell his mother, Eleanor Stark, who turns 100 in September, that “Buck” would be coming home. Tears began flowing again.

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The funeral for Luther E. “Buck” Bagley with full military honors held August 10, 2024, in Fitzgerald. He will finally be laid to rest and no longer missing.

The story does not end there…

Lanier-Moore VFW Post 5745 learned of this story as it was “local” for them at the end of May. The next Monday at a meeting of the Veterans at the Library, Jimmy Overstreet, a local veteran, presented a 48-star American Flag to Scotty Nasworthy of Post 5745, and stated the flag was received from a family in Cobbtown that was cleaning up a house after a death, and he thought that the Post could hang it up in the Veterans Center on Kite Hwy in Swainsboro.

Scotty realized the significance of this flag later in the day. This Flag would have been the flag that Buck Bagley would have been buried under if he had come home after being KIA. The American Flag did not have 50 stars until 1958 when the last two states were added.

After some coordination with the Army, who will be in charge of honors, the 48 Star Flag will drape the casket at the funeral home, and then be removed and replaced with a 50-star flag, that will be folded and presented to the family at the cemetery.

The family will then return to the funeral home where the 48-star flag and a VFW Legacy Citation of Merit (memorialize a fallen service member who was killed in action) from the VFW National Commander will be presented to the family.

Currently the United States has the following numbers of missing veterans:

World War II Summary – 72,053

Korean War Summary – 7,466

Vietnam War summary – 1,575

Cold War Summary – 126

Other Conflicts Summary – 6

“WE PROMISE TO NEVER FORGET”